This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photos by Laura Carbone

Larger-than-life Matt Andersen has the voice to match, and the talented songwriter gave us an insight into how he got so big—in every way. Andersen told the story of the place where everyone in his dicey neighborhood felt safe: his mother’s kitchen. Andersen’s extraordinary fingerpicking, his deep rich baritone and his ability to paint images with his songs is a rare and wonderful combination.

In contrast to Andersen’s seated solo act, David Wax Museum’s outfit benefit from an exuberant , accordion and-of-the-border flavor, with horns, guitars, drums, fiddle and the occasional foot stomps for percussion. They sing in English and Spanish, the audience didn’t have to understand either language to get in a mood to party.

Husband-and-wife team Birds of Chicago captured the audience in their first pass, with opener “Nobody Wants to Be Alone,” and it only got better from there. Despite husband and guitarist JT Nero’s temporary hoarseness, they pressed on with a memorial to wife Allison Russell’s late grandmother in a revival-meeting barnburner, complete with handclaps, footstomps and eerie riffs from accompanying virtuoso Steve Dawson on slide guitar. Unsurprisingly, many folks at Folk Alliance have made political statements critical of the current Administration, but Nero gave a fairly lengthy speech in which he quoted Billy Bragg, who said, “Empathy must be our currency,” as he urged more dialogue and less invective. The band then closed with “American Flowers,” with the substantial audience singing along enthusiastically—one of the most powerful moments of the conference so far.

We had the privilege of hearing Steppenwolf founder John Kay again, this time in Dan Navarro’s Cantina Navarro, one of the best-curated rooms at the conference. Again solo, Kay knocked it out of the park with his funny, yet biting “She’s Got the Goods,” a femme fatale, with lines like “Even Bill the banker, who always had a heart like ice/Became a gamblin’ fool, then she rolled him like a pair of dice.” Can’t wait to hear his new album.

Berklee College of Music professor Livingston Taylor (brother of James) gave us a free seminar in songwriting, illustrating his points with examples from not only his own works, but from Rodgers and Hammerstein and Irving Berlin. The most painless, productive and funny class I’ve attended in years.

Elmore doesn’t cover rap or hip hop, but Gangstagrass is the exception. Offering up story songs, the five members perfectly alternate bluegrass and hip hop with two members alternately going out into the crowd to recite their verses between Landry McMeans’ traditional-sounding vocals. They closed with “All for One,” a fun singalong complete with hand gestures to illustrate “all,” “4,” “2,” “1!” Fun stuff, any time of the day or night.

We ended the night with a departure from music, with the act Hairbrain, a duo which incidentally plays music, but whose comedy/performance art takes center stage. Rapid-fire lines spoken in unison go on for minutes, morphing into hysterical and/or thoughtful mistakes based on the original phrase. “I don’t know what I don’t know” became a philosophical discussion at warp speed. This act needs to be experienced, but here’s a tip: they received the first standing ovation I saw all night.

—Suzanne Cadgène